| Hear our dying ancestors. Aiye nyi loo, a nti. The world slips us by.The last time you called your |
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Aiye nyi loo, a nti. The world slips us by. The last time you called your village, did you hear the groans and moans of our dying ancestors? What you heard is the dying of a generation of people who hold the oral history of the African tribe: the elders who are now aged in their 80s and 80s (Generation E/elder). The elders hold in their memory much of Africa's oral technology, history, culture, medicine, religion, etc. Only very few of these elders can speak, read or write English/French. Only very very few of them are literate to the point of writing down their knowledge in the ancestral languages. Gen E had the misfortune of birthing a generation in the 1920s to 1940s (Gen D/displaced) who endured the effects of reintensified struggle for Africa. The business of empire became intensely exploitative in the era of the two European world wars. The need to retrieve mineral and labour resources from African soil as efficiently as possible caused the imposition of direct attacks on indigenous culture. When Europe's young men died enmasse in the wars, the colonisers had to train up locals to administer the colonies. Many of Gen D became the first ever in their villages to go through 'formal' education. They were taught to love the colonial culture and obey the imperial religion taught in the formal schools. Many studied 'overseas' where the colomentality was firmly rooted then returned home to 'develop' the newly independent colonial-era African states. Gen D learned to internalise rejection, even hatred, of the culture they were born with. It was been difficult for many to reconcile love for the "developed" culture with "backward" traditions represented by their Gen E parents. Many turned their back on the villages and made their way into the city or overseas. Gen D are fully literate in English/French. Gen D is the lost generation who only speak the ancestral languages to their parents because they have to, but are mentally programmed to reject reading, writing or living their ancestry. In the 1950s and 1960s, Gen D became parents to Gen C/colomental in the era of 'independence'. The people now aged in their 40s and 50s were taught that to be modern and to live in the "new world" means having an European world view. As adults, more than a few of this colomental generation live or would like to live "in the diaspora" where they can have 'normal' ie European lives in which to bring up their households. English/French is the lingua cultura of these households. But on the street, many Gen C still need to communicate with friends in ancestral language, even if only to avoid been labelled 'fake oyinbo'. Some colomentals manage to shed the negative self-image of their generation and return to the villages where they rediscover the knowledge locked in the heads of the elders through conversations. But Gen C tend to lack the intellectual tool-kits to record that knowledge. They were not taught to read or write ancestral languages although they are usually fluent in English/French. The colomentals are now attaining power and influence across Africa. Yet at home or abroad, they are having children (Gen B/baby) in households that is almost completely ignorant of ancestral norms. Gen B will be too young to interact with Gen E. In a world where culture is the predominant currency, the infants and teenagers are in grave danger of becoming the cultural worthless. What is dying every night is connection to what is truly African tradition. All tradition and history is oral until it is written down. The dying elders know our history but cannot read or write it. The displaced Gen D should be the bridge but is too intellectually traumatised to reconcile with tradition. The author Wole Soyinka was only half correct when he described this generation as the "lost generation". It is not only lost, it is also the loser, the wastrel, and the akotileta generation. Gen D is becoming old and infirm. The colomental Gen C has mostly inherited the world view of its parents. Rather than reconnect to the elders, this generation has increased its ignorance of African tradition and folklore. The baby Gen B is yet young but may never age in the wisdom of our tribe. It faces the danger of presenting a blank slate on which any historian who bothers to WRITE will write the new interpretation of African history for Gen A. Our experience disagrees with those who say 'the beautiful ones are not yet born'. The oncoming Gen A in Africa is very likely to be as culturally rootless and emotionally vulnerable as any descendant of slavery into the 'New World' Africa faces a danger so deep, so grave, so final that it eclipses all the troubles we have known so far. Our collective memory is unrecorded and its keepers are dying. Once the elders are gone, that is it for African tradition and history. The next time you visit your village, please take along a recorder and some paper, Talk to the elders and write down all you hear. You will be the historian that we seek Remi-Niyi Alaran writes on enterprise and social capital. Print this article Print this article Monday, December 20, 2004 Enterprising Communities 3: Investing in Informal Sector Enterprises This is the 3rd (ikeeta) of the Enterprising Communities series to be published by ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERRISES. This series aims to assist African enterpreneurs in building business enterprises based on innovations in science, technology, engineering and medicine.-------- ENTERPRISE COMMUNITY: A STRUCTURED APPROACH TO INFORMAL SECTOR INVESTMENT Introduction: Attempts to build stock exchanges, venture capital funds, and other 'sophisticated' investment structures are unlikely to mobilise the economies of less developed countries, until the informal business sector is empowered with professional business and financial management. An enterprise community reduces the risk of participating in informal businesses and offers a viable mechanism for funding and operating much-needed utility infrastructure. Article: The informal sector accounts for some 70pc – 90pc of productive capability in many national economies. Yet it can be difficult for informal sector enterprises [ISE] to access outside investment funds or management resources: # Informality: ISE are not registered with the relevant jurispudence as limited liability companies. There is no separation between enterprise assets and personal assets. The persons who own or control an ISE are directly and jointly held responsible for its liabilities. The lack of separation between ownership and control makes it difficult for outside investors to sanction the activities of owner-managers. # Restricted ownership: Many ISE are funded with investment participations of five or fewer persons, usually members of same family. The ability to raise investment is restricted to the financial means of family members and to internally generated revenues. # Restricted professional management: It is difficult for ISE to source a full complement of professional management from the pool of owner-managers. Professional managers work best in enterprises with discernible career paths, meritocratic compensation systems, and support for continuous development of technical capabilities. # Limited accountability: Many ISE lack sufficient organisational transparency. Where produced, financial records are used primarily as planning tools, rather than for control purposes. Financial accountability is mainly limited to internal stake-holders, who are unlikely to be self-censoring. The predominance of ISE presents a problem for the provision of utility infrastructure in social economies that do are unable to support the hub fund investment model (see below). In particular, economies of many so-called 'less developing countries' may lack professional business or fund management, formal funds or enterprises, and sophisticated investors. The Enterprise Community structure An Enterprise Community is a structure for coordinating participation of interested persons and ISE in the business of infrastructure provision. Enterprise communities are not investment funds. Rather, an enterprise community is an association of ISE that contribute operational expertise to implementation of infrastructure projects. A technically competent enterprise sponsors an enterprise community principally as a means of subcontracting specific project activities to ISE with relevant expertise. The technical sponsor supplies professional management resources. In all other aspects, an enterprise community is organised similarly to the classic special project entity with its own revenues, liabilities and assets. Funding The technical sponsor owns the ordinary equity in an enterprise community. However, control of ordinary equity is exercised jointly, via holdings of one equal voting right each, by all the involved ISE, the technical sponsor, and any outside equity investors. An enterprise community obtains funding by issue of equity or loan investment participations, and by customer prepayment financing. Participations are marketed to and held, under pre-agreed conditions, by the involved ISE, the technical sponsor, and other sophisticated persons such as financial services businesses. Participations carry no voting rights, but provide holders with distribution rights in profits or assets of the enterprise community. The combination of voting rights and investment participation gives ISE and outside investors in enterprise communities a very high degree of public accountability, democratic control, and risk management flexibility. Depending on specifics of the enterprise community agreement, all holders of voting rights decide collectively for each proposed utility infrastructure: whether a project should be undertaken; which ISE should be involved in specific project tasks; the infrastructure usage and pricing levels; and what proportion of profits should be distributed or retained as reserves. The technical sponsor then coordinates the implementation process. Even as they remain voting members of an enterprise community, ISE and investors have flexibility of deciding which infrastructure projects to contribute to. This is unlike HFIS that force investors to participate in any undertakings chosen by the fund manager, and force portfolio companies to accept money from any investor who happens to contribute to the managed fund. Regulation and Compliance An enterprise community is a wholly owned business division or subsidiary of its technical sponsor. The business of the technical sponsor is provision of infrastructure solutions, services or manufactured goods. The purpose of an enterprise community is sharing of business risks. The risks and rewards are undertaken collectively by all participants. Under pre-agreed terms, the entire enterprise community shares control of revenues, liabilities and assets. For these reasons, there is no need for external regulation of enterprise communities. === box begins === The Hub Fund Investment structure The hub fund investment structure [HFIS] centres around a collective investment fund. The fund has a manager, and a group of highly sophisticated investors who contribute money to the fund. The investors are required to leave their money in the fund under pre-agreed conditions. They are strongly informed of risk factors that may result in loss of all their invested funds and receive no guarantee of obtaining sufficient financial returns on investment. The money from different investors are pooled into a number of discrete funds, and professional fund managers invest the funds into a number of professionally managed portfolio enterprises. Depending on its mandate, the fund invests in ownership of entire-equity (the private equity model) or medium-long term ownership of partial equity (the investment fund model) or short-term trading of securities in quoted entities (the arbitrage fund model) or in loan issuances (the debt investment fund). Customer relationship management is the responsibility of individual enterprises in which the fund has invested. The fund, itself, has little or no direct relationship with end-user customers. Control over financial resources of funds is heavily centralised with the manager. Investors, customers and businesses have little control over the deployment of fund money, even though some investors may be appointed as non-executive officers to oversee fund activities. Conversely, the fund manager has strong impact on deployment of fund monies. HFIS are generally regulated as financial services providers. They need to be regulated because of the many degrees in separation of ownership and control involved in this highly differentiated business model. The funds are owned by investors but controlled by professional fund managers who receive compensation in performance bonuses and in percentages of funds under management. The portfolio companies are owned by their shareholders, including HFIS, and controlled by professional business managers, who receive compensation in performance bonuses and in salaries. Government-oriented regulation is imposed in order to protect the interests of investors and shareholders. These providers of funds are not always business or fund managers, and may lack ability to measure the performance or technical competency of either set of professional managers. === box ends === Benefits to Informal Sector Enterprises The enterprise community structure yields significant benefits to ISE businesses. Associating together increases the scale and scope of markets, funding, and professional skills available to each individual ISE. Increased integration and accountability that arises from project involvement also exposes ISE to the benefits of having professional management, clearly defined business models, and competitive trading practises. Syndicated funding or expertise makes larger utility infrastructure affordable close to the region where ISE are already based. In turn, affordable access to utility infrastructure can help make ISE businesses more cost-effective and competitive. Remi-Niyi Alaran writes on enterprise and social capital. ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES. Enterprising Communities. Copyright (c) ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES, 2004 You may copy, transmit, or otherwise use this document provided the copyright notice is attached Print this article Print this article Saturday, December 11, 2004 Sustainable farming by local farmers, please Aja ti ko ba gbo fere odee, o nfi ku shere: the (hunting) dog that does not hear the hunter's whistle plays with its death. Interesting that migrants are being invited from all over the world to help fulfil the agriculture component of this government's wretched NEEDS programme. Thought one should cast some detail on why Zimbabwe's outcasts should not be invited by the Akotileta to farm land anywhere in Africa and especially Nigeria. Firstly, it is important to note the significance of the assertion that, on "independence" the colonials merely handed their estates for safekeeping to its house-servants. In Asia the field-hands are resuming control of their economies. Elsewhere, the colonials are reestablising proxy control of the assets they left behind. Secondly, there is no reasoning with the Akotileta in government throughout Africa. Progressive people really need to rise above their s/elected governments who insist in looking to foreign "investors" at the expense of home sufficiency. On to farming... Large-scale, commercial farming is a capital and labour intensive business. In the oyinbo countries in US/EU, farming is also heavily subsidised: it is estimated that the EU spends approx eight times more to subsidise each cow than it spends on aid in Africa, about Euro 300. Under the Common Agric Policy, EU farmers are paid to NOT grow food because they otherwise grow too much and further depress world prices. Even with these subsidies, a lot of their excess production is dumped in Africa or "sold" as aid to countries. The effect of this dumping is to remove market incentive of local farmers to cultivate land. One of the dump sites is Nigeria, which imports just about every foodstuff you can imagine apart from cassava and yam. Much of the farming in US/EU is controlled by the big food processors such as Cargill and Del Monte, the Bigpharmas such as Glaxo and Roche, chemical companies such as Dow Chemical and ICI, and the seed producers such as Syngenta. The biggest 10 seed companies control some 30pc of world grain supply. They have invested in producing seeds that are pest-resistant, and require lots and lots and lots of chemical fertilizer and mechanically controlled irrigation systems, as well as expensive mechanical equipment for planting, harvesting, storage, and distribution investment. These seeds are known in the trade as "terminator seeds" because their root structures and their heavy addiction to chemical fertilizers prevent any other plants, so called weeds, from growing near them. Terminator seeds also germinate only once. This means that farmers need to go back to the seed producers every year to get new stock. The farmers have contracts to buy seeds from seedCos; contracts to buy fertilizer from chemCos; and contracts to sell their produce to the processors who supply the likes of WalMart, KFC and McD. Needless to say, subscale farmers who do not quality for subsidies get a raw deal most of the time while large landowners are some of the richest peope in US/EU. Some smaller farmers band together to form co-operatives in order to afford seeds or processing machinery and exercise better bargaining power with customers. What does this all have to do with Zimbabwe/SA farmers coming to Nigeria? When in southern Africa, many of these farmers were in cooperatives that have contracts to supply flowers or grapes or fresh fruit to the UK/EU market. Due to their contracts, they try not to produe any more than their processors can accommodate - hence the large tracts of "set-aside" land that created such rumpus in Zimbabwe. They did not farm the land or allow it to be farmed by the nationals. Their farming investments are not oriented to feeding their host communities. They produce few valuable jobs and retain very little capital in the local economy. The cooperatives refused to allow black farmers as members before or after apartheid in much of southern Africa. The Akotileta in Nigeria have passed a lot of laws to attract FDI. Many of these laws impact very hard on progressive businesses and production capacity in the country. The little FDI that comes to Nigeria is now directed via the descendants of the Cecil Rhodes generation controlling MTN, Protea, AfricaOne, etc and their counterparts controlling the oil sector. The s/elected wasters in power do not appreciate that Nigerians will have an incentive to produce their own food and drink if cheaper products are not dumped into the country. Even the farms and businesses belonging to these "leaders" are managed by asians or south Africans. The cooperative business model is one that holds a lot of potential for progressive entrepreneurs throughout Africa. There is not-a-lot to learn from foreign farmers in the commercialised farm business because black farmers are unlikely to get supply contracts from EU buyers. Africans need to focus on food sufficiency and security within the continent. There is no need to destroy African farmland with the intensive methods described above. If you want to assist African farmers in resisting the antics of the Akotileta and their paymasters, organise cooperatives for your local farmer community. Invest in processing equipment to raise the value-added component. This will bring your community higher prices. Target the African market, and. . . Do not allow bad seeds to set root in your ancestral land. Remi-Niyi Alaran writes on enterprise and social capital. ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES. Enterprising Communities. Copyright (c) ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES, 2003 You may copy, transmit, or otherwise use this document provided the copyright notice is attached. Print this article Print this article Friday, December 10, 2004 How to raise business finance when the bank NEEDS to say no It is the 2nd (ikeji) of the Enterprising Communities series to be published by ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERRISES. This series aims to assist African enterpreneurs in building business enterprises based on innovations in science, technology, engineering and medicine. HOW TO RAISE BUSINESS FINANCE WHEN THE BANK "NEEDS" TO SAY NO. Introduction: A person who works in a bank is a worker, not a banker. It is the people who own (equity shares in) the bank that are bankers. The Enterprising Communities series shows you how to raise funds for an enterprise in your community, when the bank and its workers only want to buy and sell foreign exchange . . . Article: These days, it is likely that the bank located in your community NEEDS to do business mainly with multinational enterprises. An examination of the structure of enterprise economy in many African countries reveals three distinct layers: the multinational trading companies; a small middle tier of brokers, and vendors of non-tradable services; and a vast community of family-controlled enterprises. Only the multinationals can readily do business with our banks, precisely because the multinationals have access to vast capital resources of their own. They use the banks only to pay local employees, suppliers and brokers. The banks for their part think they are too big for the community enterprises. Rather than investing in and supporting community enterprises with appropriate lending, savings and leasing schemes, our banks are attuned to become "globally competitive". As a whole, Africa generates some 5pc of global trade. There are regional development authorities or states elsewhere with far greater impact on global trade flows. For example, the land mass of all of Western Europe will fit within the borders of Sudan alone. But financially, all of Sudan is smaller than Birmingham UK or Birmingham USA. In the same vein, Texas USA generates some 30pc of USA's USD 3 trillion GDP. That is more than productivity of all Africa other than Nigeria and South Africa. Yet the main operations of our banks rarely extend beyond fishing for deposits, round-tripping of foreign currency, and daisy-chaining of import-export financing letters. These banks make it difficult for community enterprises to operate bank accounts. They don't want you dirtying their marble floor-to-ceiling lobbies. As a result, many enterprises do their business in cash. They buy, sell, lend and collect cash payments. Businesspeople travel with large sums of cash. Politicians settle issues with bags of cash. Major capital expenditures are financed in cash. Only a small portion of this cash enters the formal banking system. Here then is a guide to raisng funds for community enteprises. Many middle-tier enterprises conduct the bulk of their business with one or two trade suppliers. It is not uncommon that 70pc to 80pc of supplies for your beer brokerage comes from one supplier. Community enterprises tend to have a more varied distribution of suppliers and customers. Your metal-working workshop may source wrought iron from any number of metal vendors and sell ornamental gates to any number of home-improvers. These trading patterns signify three vibrant sources of business funding for your enterprise, without you needing to exhange dirty looks with a bank worker: vendor finance, supplier finance, and customer prepay finance. Vendor finance is when the manufacturer of a product gives you some time to sell the product before you pay the manufacturer. The longer you have traded with a manufacturer, the better terms of this "credit" you will likely get. Vendor finance is not likely from your local bukateria (restaurant) where the product is consumed immediately, is not fungible, and is not recoverable. In fact you may see a prominent display that signals "Do not ask for credit as refusal often offends". You should request vendor finance from manufacturers of products that are durable, relatively expensive, and are physically discrete. Such products include stoves, water tanks, car parts, and houses. Although the product is in your possession, its ownership remains with the manufacturer until it is sold. If you are unable to sell the product as agreed, the manufacturer is able to recover the product from your possession and try a more successful trader. Supplier finance is when a wholesaler, importer or other big trading company supplies you with products or services and gives you some time before you have to pay. This type of financing is the most common in many business-to-business transactions in African markets. Usually ownership and control responsibility for the products become yours. You usually have to pay your supplier when your credit period is due, whether or not you have succeeded in selling the products. Supplier financing tends to cover products with same properties as vendor finance. Customer prepay finance is when your customer pays before you release your goods and services. This is the type of financing most commonly available to the owner-manager of a bukateria, butchers, small hotel and other open market community enterprises. Interestingly, it is the becoming the most preferred payment mechanism deployed by multinational trading enterprises in African markets. Many Africans do not have credit records or bank accounts. They do not own bank cards or credit cards. They do not own passports or identity cards. They may not even have discernable addresses, as there are no centralised street maps or postal codes. Yet, multinationals know there is plenty-plenty money to be made in your community. Solution: they sell you prepayment cards which you then use, instead of credit or debit cards, to pay for their products. So how applicable are these funding sources in helping your business enterprise? You may get vendor finance if your business is resale of capital goods. You should find supplier financing is readily accessible if you deal in fast moving consumer goods. You are already getting customer prepay finance if your business trades on "money for hand" basis. Of course, combinations of all three business financing sources is possible. When you have ambitions to grow your product-based business, you should consider offering vendor or supplier finance to your business customers. You may be pleased to find significant increases in business volume compensate for delays in getting your cash up-front. You will need to communicate more with your buyers and help develop their business e.g by identifying emerging markets for your products. Do not offer vendor or supplier finance to home consumers. If your business provides services to a wide range of end-user customers, you should consider introducing a prepayment accounts system tiered to price discounts. For example, you run a restaurant, hotel or mechanic workshop and want to expand your business but don't have the money. Your customers always tell you they really appreciate your food, room service, or car tuning. They only wish you were closer to where they live or work. Bless them. Tell them you want to open a shop near them and are offering discounts on any of your shops to those who pay in advance. Offer 5pc to 10pc discounts for 13weeks or 6months prepayments, respectively. Always issue a computer-printed prepayment voucher that proclaims this offer, and issue a receipt. Use the money to build and furnish your shop. This is the way multinationals fund their GSM "foreign" investments: it is the community paying. Hardly any new money is brought into the community. You can do it too, and you don't need a bank. You only need your regular customers. Finally, you are advised to invest in information systems to keep track of your growing business, your suppliers, your products and services, and your customers more efficiently. Giving your suppliers and customers computer-generated records improves the profile of your business. Using information systems also helps you to monitor your income and expenditure, profits and losses, and cash flows, so that you know in advance when your enterprise will need money. You really need to plan your business better. Remi-Niyi Alaran writes on enterprise and social capital. ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES. Enterprising Communities. Copyright (c) ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES, 2004 You may copy, transmit, or otherwise use this document provided the copyright notice is attached. Print this article Print this article Thursday, December 09, 2004 How to build a water well. It is the 1st (ikini) of the Enterprising Communities series to be published by ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERRISES. This series aims to assist African enterpreneurs in building business enterprises based on innovations in science, technology, engineering and medicine. HOW TO (NOT NEED TO) DIG A WATER WELL (KAANGA) Introduction: The next time any African introduces themselves to you as Engineer this or Engineer that, tell the wastrel to go dig a borehole for a village or fetch water with a bucket. Are you tired of fetching water with a bucket? The Enterprising Communities series shows you how to harvest rainwater... Africa's home grown engineers are just not worth their professional title. That is what the Nigerian government thnks when it gives estimated 94pc of all engineering works to foreign consulting firms. From bridges to stadiums, from multi-storey buildings to GSM masts, from roads to wells, no local engineering firm is deemed sufficiently capable by national or state governments. These so-called engineers should redeem themselves. There is talk of Chinese engineers building 598 water wells in eighteen Nigerian (18, meejoola) states - including Ogun, Oyo, Akwa Ibom and Abuja. Chinese Engineers digging boreholes in Nigeria?! Whatever happened to the yearly thousands of civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical B.Eng and M.Eng produced by higher institutions in these states? WATER WELLS, haba. People in the village have been building kaanga (water well) and shalanga (pit latrine) for aeons, without importing Chinese, Irish or Gabonese to provide "technical assistance". This is a very serious matter. There is an oncoming GLOBAL shortage of clean water. In fact, scientists are predicting that future wars over water supplies will be more intense than current conflicts over crude oil supplies! Those who live in places where drinking water appears, from a centralised waterworks, wherever you open a tap will notice that their water bills are annually increasing at above-inflation rates. So everybody can benefit from knowing how to harvest water locally, cheaply, cleanly and efficiently. Whether you live in the city or in the village, in the rain-soaked swamp or in the drought-stricken areas can still benefit from rainwater harvesting and from runoff water harvesting. RAINWATER HARVESTING Requirements: corrugated roofing sheets, a filter made from a 50-litre plastic keg (optional), collector pipe (plastic), distribution pipe (plastic), and water butt The water butt can be above ground tank with a tap attached to it. Alternatively it may be below ground tank with a small handpump attached to it. Above-ground butts are easier to clean while below ground butts are better supported. Below ground butt may also be dug out tank with walls, bottom and top covered with cement/concrete. 1. Build your house with a sloping (A-style) roof design. 2, Cover the roof with strips of corrugated sheets. Make sure the bottom edge of sheets near the top cover the upper edge of the next lower sheet. Let the bottommost sheet overlap the edge of the roof. 3. Collector pipe: Cut off a section from some of your pipe so that the 0-shape becomes U-shape. Put the collector pipe along the length of your roof with the roof overhang inside the bowl of the U-shape. 4. Filter/Connector keg: Turn the keg upside down. Cut a hole in the side farthest from the sprout for insertion of the collector pipe. You may fold some clothing several times and tie to the collector pipe at its insertion point. This acts as a filter to prevent debris from the roof from entry your rainwater harvesting system. (lace curtains are excellent for this purpose). Attach the keg firmly to the side of your house. Place the bottom (capped) end of the keg over the entrance of the direction pipe. Remove the cap from the keg. 5. Direction pipe: Place one end over the end of the connector keg and place the other end OVER (not into) the top of he water butt. 6. When rain falls, let the initial rainfall flow away before inserting the directon pipe into the top of the water butt. In the heavy rainfall conditions experienced across most of sub-saharan region of Africa, you may find that a family of six can more-than-satisfy their domestic water needs from rainfall collected in this manner. 7. Rainwater is relatively pure compared to groundwater. If you regularly keep your roof and the collector pipe clear of debris, you may safely use this rainwater for washing clothes, flushing, body cleaning and other non-injested usages. It is recommended that the water be heated, and allowed to for some minutes, before drinking or cooking. Boiling kills pathogens that may be too small for you to see and yet they live in the water. 8. If an underground water butt is used, take care to ensure there are no pit latrines or sewage tanks in its vicinity. If in doubt, put the water butt on the opposite end of the house from any sewage facilities. COMMENT: Anyone who has lived with a leaking roof will bear witness to the volumes of rainwater that can efficiently be collected with this system! RUNOFF WATER HARVESTING Farmers need lots of water for irrigation and animal husbandry. People in drought-stricken areas may need to walk several miles to find a water hole. Many Nigerians/Africans do not have tap-borne water in their homes. In all these cases, women and children are often tasked to walk miles in search of drinking water. They regularly carry loads of 3kg (mudu meeta) on their heads two to three times a day. Yet they live in places where rain falls heavily and runs off into gullies thereby causing severe erosion and loss of topsoil. This runoff rainwater can be harvested easily in rural areas or combined with the rainwater harvesting method discussed above. Requirements: Cement/concrete; an open space about 2000 sq metres; water pump; wire gauze 1. Clear an area of 500sg metres in a corner of your space. Inside the clearing, dig a CIRCULAR-shape underground tank of radius 5 meters. Make it as deep as you like. 2. Cover the sides and bottom with cement blocks or concrete. The bottom should be covered. This is not a well that taps underground water. You don't want the water that you collect to drain away! 3.Make an indentation near the lip of the underground tank. This indentation may be 1.5 metres wide and about 0.5 metres below-ground-level at the inlet of the tank. So, the indentation is deepest at the inlet of the tank and becomes shallower until it reaches ground level. It will look like the pouring end of a jug. Now make 5 cement/concrete mini-slopes between the tank inlet and the "pouring" end. Each slope has a vertical face that is about 0.1 metres high. This face points away trom the tank. Cover the sides of the tanks and the indentation with cement/concrete so that it extends about 0.2metres above ground level. Now the indentation looks like the pouring end of a jug with teeth! Cover the indentation with wire gauze to prevent animals or debris from entering the tank. 4. Gradually slope the rest of the 1500sq metres towards the indentation of the tank. This is the collector funnel. Plant grass in this area, if you want to. 5. Security: Erect a small wooden fence around the tank and inlet area. Cover this fence with a thatch, wood, or corrugated iron roof. The fence and roof help prevent birds or roaming animals (including people) from falling into your tank. For additional security, erect another fence (no roof!) around the 2000sq metre area. 6. When rain falls, the collector funnel will direct it towards your underground tank. The grass, if any, will slow down the velocity of water so that it flows gently into the indentation. The grass will also filter small twigs, stones etc. The "teeth" of the indentation futher prevent small stones and other debris from entering the tank. Clean the teeth weekly during the rainy season. 7. Pump the water out. In places with clear skies and heavy rainfalls, sufficient water will collect here for farming purposes and for domestic use. Do not "fetch" water by dipping buckets, pails, etc into the water. This is to prevent contaminating the water. Invest in a handpump or buy a mechanical powered pump. You should charge a small fee for use of this waterworks in order to afford the cost of construction, operation and replacement pumps, etc. It's a business. COMMENTS: Static water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes. But do not poison the water by pouring kerosene or insecticide or any other chemicals in the tank to "kill the mosquitoes!". Instead consider putting a wooden or concrete slab directly over the rim of the tank to cut off air supply. The slab should have one to three grooves of 10cm diameter cut into it to allow overflow of the tank. Cover groove(s) with wire gauze. Get that person that calls themselves engineer to help you. Some places suffer from chemically toxic rainfall e.g places with heavy flaring of gas or burning of waste. The method described in this document for harvesting rainwater will not be appropriate in such places. Always boil water before drinking or cooking. Se omi kee to mu abi jeun. Remi-Niyi Alaran writes on enterprise and social capital. ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES. Enterprising Communities. Copyright (c) ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES, 2003 You may copy, transmit, or otherwise use this document provided the copyright notice is attached. Print this article Print this article Tuesday, December 07, 2004 The next firesale goes on, quietly Very quietly; very, very quietly; two events happened in the past fortnight that have significant implications for the future of Nigeria as a global power. # NEPA was de-structured into six operating companies. # BPE was restructured into five operations departments. Both events were coordinated by USA Department of State, UK trade and development civil servants, IMF and WB officials who have been working within the Abuja, FCT offices of both NEPA and BPE for years. NEPA is every Nigerians favorite whipping boy. The perennial complaint is there is never any consistent power supply. It has been analysed that the entire grid structure of the country will have to be replaced because the existing grid is of the wrong design. This writer thinks there should be numerous regionally decentralised grids rather than the present design of one nationally centralised super-grid. Doubtless some investors will obtain the contracts to manage the generating, distribution and service companies that will emerge from NEPA. It is less doubtful that any Nigerian companies will be appointed to these critical roles: they do not have international experience. Even if the current crop of seasoned engineers and senior management form a company, they will probably be overlooked. It will be difficult for any country to develop large scale production capacity without reliable and AFFORDABLE electric power. Nigerians will hope that they do not share the experience of California, Venezuela, Britain, Canada, and ALL other economies that have privatised electricity. Their people now receive monthly shocks from their power bills. The reorganisations at the Bureau of Privatisation of Enterprises is of utmost importance. The BPE holds the keys to Nigeria's future as a successful or failed country. The BPE comes under the authority of Atiku Abubakar, the country's vice president and rumouredly, one of its richest businessmen. Nobody has ever released a corporate financial statement or private tax returns listing the great man's income, assets or directorships. There are no public financial records either for his boss, the president and millionaire farmer, Olusegun Obasanjo. Or for any of Nigeria's current or previous oligarchaic politicians and military rulers. But that is not the main issue here. The main issue is that powers-that-be are bent on ensuring that Nigeria pushes through with transferring into assets that the Nigerian public collectively paid for over the years into control or ownership by the private sector. The batch of institutions lined up for the next firesale include NEPA, NNPC, NAA and the airports, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Stock Exchange, federal institutions of higher education, research institutes, and other core assets. Previously "failed" transfers like NITEL, Ajaokuta Steel works, NiPost and Nigeria Ports Authority will also be re-submitted. These were previously sold to "suit, suitcase, and suite" companies like Pentascope and Solgas. Those companies may well have their contracts renewed, as the akotileta government struggles to sell unfavoured assets into depressed world markets. Nigeria may do well to ask why they consider themselves so smart when consecutive governments are getting away with sovereign murder. Everything that is not rooted to the ground is being sold off. Even forestry rights are being sold off and farmland given away while government officials import basic foodstuff from all over the world. AT THIS RATE, NIGERIANS WILL SOON BECOME THE WORLD'S FIRST TOTALLY PREPAY ECONOMY. They will have to pay for their services twice, thrice, multiple times over, before they have any chance of using such services. Sometimes they will not get the services they paid such extortionate rates for. They will have nobody to complain to and no redress if they bother. Sounds like the GSM industry? Wait and see. The people in this country face the chilling prospect that, in a few year time, they will be taxed or charged to pay for national debts that are not secured by any national assets or national revenues. If unchecked, the mugging going on may result in the entire country in slavery-plantation conditions. Current international market conditions are not appropriate for any country to be undertaking privatisations. Nigeria's assets are internationally denominated in USA dollars. That currency is in free fall in world markets. Yet its value is rising against the Naira in local markets. Why? Nigeria has to import everything and its trade is denominated in USD. So importers must buy USD no matter what. Businesses are no better run or less corrupt just because they are operated by the private sector. Witness the meltdown of Enron (USA), Arthur Anderson (UK/USA), savings and loans industry (USA), railway privatisation (UK), pension funds (UK), Fannie Mae (USA), Common Agricultural Policy (EU) and other multi-billion private-sector frauds. Even the average person knows that a time of penury is not the best time to seek a bank loan or negotiate a decent deal from a pawnbroker. The privatisation madness and economic liberalisation crassness should stop, if only to give Nigerians a chance to run their own affairs. The current management of many public companies slated for privatisation will do a decent job if the government gives them a management contract and then pays its way like any other consumer. History indicates that privatised ownership or control of Nigerian people's assets results in disdain and abuse of the people's interests. Already the beneficiaries of Nigerian Airways giveaway are saying that no Nigerian should expect a high level appointment in the Virgin Airways (UK). Presumably, the president and senior government officials of Nigeria will shamelessly sit in first class while their people in coach class are "flitted" with deodorants and pesticides like dirty coachroaches on flights leaving the country. The advocates of these mugging activities are dangerous to our national wealth. They would be roundly denounced in any sensible society and they would be forced to leave positons of such responsibility. But the intellectuals of this country are slavering over scraps just so they can feel priviledged. Paradoxically, the privations may be the making ot the Nigerian people. The continued spate of privatisations will almost certainly remove the last vestiges of common interests from the populace. At last, the colonial-era construct may render and free its progressive elements to pursue alternative political arrangements. This need not be a BAD thing. Witness Somalia, so lawless since 1991 to date. It has the most connected telecommunications and air transport market in Africa, entirely because the lawlessness prevented akotileta governments from attaining national power. Somalia has the cheapest national and international calling rates in Africa. It takes three days to connect a landline telephone. Every warlord had to look after his people. So he allowed enterprises to thrive in this fiefdom and taxed them. The national airports destroyed? Warlords built private airstrips and jetties using Somalian engineers. Now that the country has a "president", nobody dares use foreign engineers to build roads, bridges, buildings, and other basic civil infrastructure. How unlike our Julius Berger capital! Somalia has learnt the lessons of national strategic interests the hard way. If Somalia had oil, their engineers will dominate the oil sector. If they fix their airline, would you bet against Somalian pilots, crew and check-in staff? You CAN bet that no jumped-up foreigner will dare "flit" a flight to or from Somalia! Links: http://p221.ezboard.com/fnigeriadiscussionsfrm2.showMessage?topicID=791.topic ___________________ Remi-Niyi Alaran writes on enterprise and social capital.
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Posted by Robot| 09.11.2005 14:25